Are all ratings farce?

When i see "Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi" topping TRP ratings i can understand there would be a large number of women who watch this and so it can really be a winner all the way even if no one i know likes the Saas Bahu Sagas. Films like KANK can be top grossers in US and films like Gadar can be superhits in the UP and Bihar belt, people with varying tastes can justify all anomalies. But how does the ET-Hewitt survey which is a prominent one name the companies which i hear so much bad about as the toppers. Some companies which are right at the top surprise me most. I have heard about their unethical "Pay and get job" recruitment policy, the training sessions which nothing more than formality. May be survey ratings are filled by "SENIOR EMPLOYEES ONLY" (or by bribed candidates), they have been with the company for a long period so out of emotions they rate their company as the best. And ideally how can a IT company be compared with a consumer goods services. And if you really want to know about the worst things may be they should ask ex-employees. I really really doubt the credibility of these surveys, they look like paid advertisements to me. I have once filled such a survey (offcourse i gave the worst rating i could) but still the company showed up in Top 5. But its nowhere to be seen this year, so this is dynamic thing, a good company can become bad in months, it does not depend on company policies after all, it depends on the people they surveyed or the company which paid money to show up in the Top 25.

Air Deccan Horror Stories

There are enough horror stories about air deccan on the net, for a sample go to the following link, but still to give vent to my feelings i am posting my date with air deccan.

http://www.abdulqabiz.com/blog/archives/general/air_deccan_suck_1.php

I had booked four flights on air deccan
Flight no.1 was cancelled 1 month before departure and i was refunded the money promptly.
Flight no.2 was cancelled 20 hours before the scheduled departure and i am yet to get the money back, even after following them non-stop for 13 days. I have been told to wait till April.
Flight no.3 was delayed by (only) 2 hours, the best so far.

Flight no.4 has the most interesting story to tell. Air Deccan has gone some kind of system migration so the tickets which have old PNR number are not being recognized by the system. My flight from kolkata was originally scheduled at 3:30 afternoon, it was later re-scheduled to 7:30 evening flight as the original flight was cancelled, but the system probably didn count this seat or it does not recognise this PNR number so when i asked for boarding pass i was told my ticket does not exist. The person at the ticket counter (some Tushar) told i have not done the credit card payment, i am still wondering if there is any credit card which reverses the transaction instead of charging late fine for non-payment. Forget about a sorry, he accused me of credit card cheating several times, i could not make him understand how credit cards work. I asked for a manual boarding pass which Tushar refused to give as it would put the responsiblity on his shoulder. I rushed to the back office to meet the duty manager, i was told to wait till 7 pm. There were several other passengers who were told only if there is any vacancy they would be accomodated in the flight. After 40 minutes of useless discussions and running from back office to reservation desk to their counter i was finally given a manual boarding pass, i thanked GOD and vowed not to travel by air deccan again.

The only wish i have left is to meet the guys who have planned the system migration, the system is not fully functional even after 15 days and not expected to be up before April it seems.God save the old man and his sea from Air Deccan. I have sold all the air deccan shares i held, though i see few more years before it closes down finally.

For other news items see following link http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&ct=:ePkh8BM9EwLbwQq0w4CFGFsy8wCSUwbJ/4-0&fp=45f56e28f935a968&ei=km_1RYGjB5TQqQOpgJGWCg&url=http%3A//timesofindia.indiatimes.com/NEWS/India/Air_Deccan_flight_with_extra_passengers/articleshow/1738532.cms&cid=0
http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&ct=:ePkh8BM9EwLbwQq0w4CFGFsy8wCSUwbJ/9-0&fp=45f575a9eeb1a183&ei=9m_1RdztEorQqQO_jMiYCg&url=http%3A//timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Cities/Kolkata/Probe_against_Air_Deccan_cramming_passengers/articleshow/1742410.cms&cid=1114254575

Positive attracts positive

Opposite poles attract each other, opposite charges attract each other, but when it comes to attitude people with Positive Attitude attract everyone. May be its because when you are with positive people you feel reassured that things will turn positive.

Its difficult to keep the cool during uncertain periods or when crisis hits you. Thats when we look we look for someone who can support us and keep our faith alive.

I meet people who are negative in their thinking because of some unpleasant experience in the past. Then i meet people who think if they expect bad things, they will get good things. But this is again positive because in the hope of getting good done to you, you are telling negative things to yourself. Reminds me of algebra where minus multiplied by minus is plus.

Finding Nemmo!

Its very difficult to find a partner, be it life partner or business partner. And there comes sites like shaadi.com or other matchmaking sites. But there is no credibility and if you cannot see any references, its hard to make a opinion about that person.

orkut.com scores here, you can see a profile and you will see testimonials about that person, which make you believe the person is there, and form a opinion based on other people's rating of the person. But how can the orkut model be customised for job search and matrimony search?

Will continue as this topic has caught my fascination.

Award for being honest!!!

We have awards for many categories starting from movies to Tv to radio to music to cricket to bravery.

But no awards for being honest, its hard to stick to honesty when you see everyone cheating.


I met one autowallah whose meter was not tampered with, most of the autos in Hyderabad have tampered meters, its difficult to find one which shows the correct fare.

I told him that his auto is showing the correct fare, he was not happy to hear that, but he wanted to know how much more others are making. I told it would be around 20%, as this is the normal tampering done, which many auto wallahs have told me.

But the thing is will he also choose the way to tampering now? What is the reason to follow the path of honesty if he can earn more?

If educated people dont see the benefit of being true, how will a uneducated person do?
There should be some award for being honest and there is one " Manjunath Shanmugam Integrity Award" which is being given in memory of Manjunath. Read it here....
http://www.latestinindia.com/index.php/2006/11/22/spreading-the-word-on-manjunath-shanmugam-trust-activities/

Main kyon Umrao Jaan dekhne gaya?

Umrao Jaan is a damn slow movie, two scenes between Ash and Abhishek continue for ages, it talks of a different period but Ash looks so mod, does not fit to the 19th century really.

And the movie very much like Devdas celebrates the pains you get in life, very very negative, this movie would be big flop among Gen Y. I could see many people laughing during the show.

Watch it if you are dying to see Ash's beauty........

Corruption is not a post independence phenomena

India was always a corrupt country, it was there before independence, so don't feel ashamed that our forefathers fought for independence and we are wasting it.

Go to the following link or read a part of it here:

http://www.hinduonnet.com/2002/06/03/stories/2002060300311000.htm

In "Mahatma Gandhi - the Last Phase", Pyarelal, the Mahatma's secretary, says Gandhiji was deeply worried over the growing corruption and scramble for loaves in the Congress, discord and the personal rivalries among members of the party high command. He was sad that there were pocket boroughs, bogus membership, the deadweight of inert majorities and the electioneering malpractice and hypocrisy of self-seekers. Everybody was anxious to get onto the Congress bandwagon now that it was in power. The more Gandhiji saw of this, the more his conviction deepened that there was no other way of purging the Congress organisation of corruption except for the party to go out of power politics.

Gandhiji followed upon his concerns at the All-India Congress Committee (AICC) in November 1947. He mooted the idea that the political goal of the Congress having been achieved with the attainment of Independence, it ought voluntarily to liquidate itself. He argued that the dissolution of the Congress as a party would release the energy of all the progressive and patriotic elements in the country and harness it to the great task of nation-building. After the AICC meeting, he repeated his advice: "I am convinced that no patch-work treatment can save the Congress. It will only prolong the agony. The best thing for the Congress would be to dissolve itself before the rot sets in further. Its voluntary liquidation will brace up and purify the political climate of the country. But I can see that I can carry nobody with me in this."

The following week, Gandhiji returned to the subject again. He remarked that if a big national organisation like the Congress could not be purged of corruption, untruth and such other unseemly practices, and if its infiltration by self-seekers could not be stopped, it was clear that its doom was sealed and that he would not shed a tear if it disappeared. "If a patient cannot be cured of a disease, the best thing that can happen to him is to pass away," he said. Imagine the angst that drove Gandhiji to such a desperate thought.

Subsequently, he told Rajendra Prasad, then Congress president: "One brick after another in the Congress edifice is loosening and coming off. The Congress has become lustreless. We should either keep before us the pledges we gave to the people and duly implement them or plainly admit that all we said before was mere rhetoric that can have no place in practical administration." Gandhiji also told the constructive workers that in the general "there is so much corruption today that it frightens me". Also, we must recognise the fact that "the Constitution we want or the social order of our dreams cannot come through the Congress of today".

Eventually, he embodied his wishes in `The Last Will and Testament' made public a day after his death. In this document, he averred that having attained Independence, "the Congress in its present shape and form i.e., as a propaganda vehicle and parliamentary machine, has outlived its use." For these and similar reasons, he asked the AICC "to disband the existing Congress organisation and flower into a Lok Sevak Sangh".

Bigg Boss is coming!!

Bigg Boss is the latest in the list of copied versions of International Reality Shows on Indian Television. And the time looks great. Sony has build up a sky high interest for the show. SET MAX ( getting the eyeballs thanks to ICC Champions Trophy) has been showing the promos for the show and the show host Arshad Warsi is basking in the fame of Lage Raho Munnabhai.
There have been many shows where you vote for the contestant of your choice, like Indian Idol but here you have to vote for the contestant you HATE. The only wish i could make was if it was like the original controversial Reality show Big Brother which was uncensored in many countries which is not entirely possible in India.

Though the contestant names have not been revealed officially. It would be done officially only on 3rd of November. The list will surely include Rakhi Sawant, Ravi Kissen, Vinod Kambli and Karan Wahi. Rakhi Sawant needs no introduction as the item girl. Vinod Kambli has had his share of limelight both as cricketer and a celebrity. Ravi Kissen is a popular Bhojpuri Star. And Karan Wahi a TV actor. It would be fun to watch Rakhi Sawant speak as mostly what she speaks is never thought off. If Sony can rope in Mika it would be icing on the cake. Riya Sen and Ashmit Patel wont be on the show as had been planned. Smriti Irani too wont be there as her dates are booked for other shows. Its tough to have people on the show for three whole months.


Well to know more about the show read the following lines taken from Sony's website.

Are you tired of watching fake emotions, exaggerated drama, contrived storylines and typical plots in your daily soaps???

Then, get set for real drama like you have never seen before.

BIGG BOSS, the Indian version of the internationally acclaimed show – Big Boss is set to take the nation by storm from November 3rd onwards.

Bigg Boss, the all powerful and god-like entity will rule the lives of 13 handpicked celebrities from various fields. He will make them do things that you could never imagine and show you a side of them that you have not seen before. This unscripted soap will entertain you with its unadulterated drama, raw emotions, genuine laughter and so much more. Bigg Boss will show you LIVE drama as it happens.

To top it off, Bigg Boss has found the ultimate assistant – ARSHAD WARSI to help him in finding these celebrities and to take you on a roller coaster ride like no other. Arshad Warsi is set for a role of a lifetime. And, you get set for a unique primetime soap that will leave you gasping for more!

THE FORMAT:

The house:

Bigg Boss has built a basic and functional house at the outskirts of Mumbai where he will house 13 celebrities for 3 months. The house is large enough for 13 people, but small enough to ensure that they are always in each other’s space.

30 cameras will capture their every move to ensure that celebrities do not have any privacy [except in the bathrooms].

The house does not contain any tools of entertainment or means of communication with the outside word…

No television…No Radio…No Music player…No Books…No Internet…No phones…etc.

Celebrities cannot leave the house once the show starts… unless they are evicted through public vote.

Can you imagine being stuck inside a house for 3 months? How would you feel if your freedom was taken away? Read on for more…

Back to basics:

Each celebrity enters the house with 1 suitcase. They have to prioritize their needs and pack everything that they will need for 3 months. Once they enter the house, Bigg Boss will not allow anything from outside into the house without his permission.

The celebrities will have to cook, clean, sweep the floor, etc. without any help from maids, assistants, cooks, etc.

There is no make-up artist or stylist to help them look their best on television. They have to fend for themselves.

Can you imagine your celebrities without all the help that they take for granted? Think of all the fun while watching them do the household chores.

Bigg Boss’s power:

Bigg Boss will give the celebrities the weekly and daily tasks through which they will earn their weekly budget. The group will use the budget to buy food items to survive in the house.

The group can wager 25%-75% of their weekly budget with Bigg Boss depending on the difficulty of the task. If they are successful, Bigg Boss will increase their weekly budget and if they fail at the task, they will have to live like paupers.

Nomination and Eviction:

Nomination
Each housemate nominates 2 celebrities for eviction to Bigg Boss. [cannot nominate themselves].

Bigg Boss chooses 2 celebrities with the maximum number of nominations to be put up for public vote.

Voting lines open and the viewers vote to throw out the celebrity the hate the most from the Bigg Boss’s house.

Eviction
At the end of the week, the voting lines close.

The celebrity with the maximum votes is evicted from the Bigg Boss’s house.

Aquafina, Hyderabad

Never wanted to have criticism of a service on my blog but Aquafina drinking water supply has forced me to write about it. And could not find a review service dedicated to drinking water supply in Hyderabad so this is the best place.

I took the connection in April 2005, giving a deposit of 700 Rs for two bottles and some 200 Rs for the dispenser. The cost per bottle used to be 65 Rs, the service continued okay for a few months. We used to call him and he used to come at least 50% of the time on the same day to supply water. Then the trouble started he refused to come more than once a week, keeping 3 bottles in place of two to make up for a week. After that he refused to come on Saturdays. The service was gradually reduced to 2 days (Tuesday and Friday) a week. He refused to deliver on any other day. Once I called the delivery boy to say I will have to complain to the customer care if the poor service continues, he asked me to discontinue from aquafina as they don’t have many customers in Srinagar Colony and it is difficult for him to come here. After I complained he refused to deliver water to me. I was allotted a new delivery boy after this, a one who was polite than the previous one. He used to say he would come but never came to replace the bottles, maybe after 3-4 days he would come once and deliver new bottles.

Meanwhile the customer service supervisor resigned which increased my troubles by volumes.

I disconnected from the service in June 2006 and asked customer care Aquafina, Hyderabad more than 20 times to refund but no response has come from their side.

They are no mood to give my 700 Rs back to me. Looks like consumer court is the best option.

Life is happy or happening?

When was the last time you took time to visit a park, or looked at the beauty of a flower/ saw the sunset/listened to your favorite song?

If its more than a year then you are probably working in a software company and sacrificing your personal life and health for getting salary raises and accolades for you manager. And if you are a manager then probably you are a exception as managers don't get time to read blogs.

Look out for the nearest park near your house, a new life is waiting for you.

Hussainsagar lake

The hotspot of Hyderabad, Necklace road is what surrounds the Hussainsagar lake. If you come to Hyderabad dont miss the action at this place which boasts of a Laser show a Lumbini park, boating in the Hussainsagar lake, Prasads Multiplex, NTR Garden, Eat Street and many other places near by.
Images taken are those of the Buddha statues which is right there in the middle of the lake. The bright spot near the center of the dark image(night one) is how the Buddha statue looks at night
from a distance.

Salary Blues

You have heard people say “to earn more you have to work more” or “you get paid for what you do” and “you have to justify your salary by working as much as you are paid for”. But this was never true and this will never be true. Salary is seldom or never influenced by the amount of work you do. Had this been the case a rickshaw puller would be the person earning the highest amount of money as he is working the hardest, but a CEO sitting in the boardroom company earns the highest, the only work he might be doing may be signing a few documents and attending meetings and playing golf. Does this say hard work is not rewarded, no not exactly but qualities like hard work and other virtues come into play only when the fight is between two people having the same set of attributes. Here law of demand and supply play a bigger role than any other factor. Suppose(hypothetical situation) the number of people who can offer to work as physical laborers decreases, will this lead to increase in their salary? Yes it will provided no alternatives like machine are available. Will to increase to the level of a manager's salary, may be no because the increased salary will tempt many educated people to work as laborers.

Look at a more practical case which happened in India, think of India pre-liberalization (pre 90s). Earning a salary of thirty thousand rupees per month would be a dream for managers with engineering degrees under their belt. But now simple science graduates with a computer science as a subject are earning this amount as a starting salary. Effect of IIT becoming a international brand has little or no effect on increasing the salary of engineering grads. All the credit goes to the US companies which post 9/11 in a bid to reduce their cost came to India and opened sweat shops.

This leads to the very old but very apt definition of salary which is “Salary is the amount paid to a employee which is marginally higher than the amount he would get in a competing company so that he does not leave the job”. Salary like other goods is the amount you pay if the demand rises, like we pay more for grapes than for bananas even though bananas are more nutritious than grapes, and likewise more for branded goods which mirrors the way IIM graduates are paid more than normal MBAs.

Therefore its wiser to develop a skill which is more in demand but less in supply to get the highest in salary package and in future if you are asked to justify the salary you are quoting in a interview tell the interviewer “don't think about money if you want to get the best”

Fwd:FW:A must read

Any estimate of the number of forwards created/forwarded/read everyday. Dont let your manager read this, otherwise mails containing "FW" in the subject list would be next thing to be blocked on your office mail server.

Who creates these forwards? Are these the people who are on bench in the people-CMM certified software companies? I thought all these forwards are old ones which keep on rotating for years. Some obviously are like the "cancer forward mail from Siemens,Delhi". There are always new freshers with golden heart who take these mails seriously and forward them to others. But there are new forwards being generated everyday. Looks like there is a whole community dedicated to creating and sending forwards. The new forwards are triggered by events like world cup(remember the goal/Zidane forwards) or movie releases(special cases are Balkrishna movie release in AP/Hyd).

And who sends these forwards? Some forward even without reading the content just to make their friends feel they are remembered. This lets some girls enjoy the "boy only things",only those are fortunate enough to be on the mailing list of boys. Some others(like me) are dead ends, no forwards go beyond them. Some have special mail-lists with the names of privileged people who will get the forwards. A few take the job of forwarding mails to each as a must do duty,and thanks to these people, we get breaks to read jokes/funny quotes in between our office work.

Try creating a new forward if you have time to see how far it goes, if it is a loud sardarji joke it will go hit and if it is a serious issue bigger chances are there for it to die. We all need a forward to our credit, i have mine which died soon as it revolved around using right to information act.

Why the world does not need Superman movies

Did you know:

1)Superman has a illegitimate child, but the child looks fragile not as strong as his dad. And the superheroes need not be good at ethics. Our Superman kisses a married woman, but does not want to marry her,but still loves her. And lets a crime happen when a not so ugly woman is there in his laps.

2)Americans are very poor at remembering faces that is how no one recognizes that Kent is Superman even though the only difference between his face and Superman's face is the spects, or is it that Superman's producers don't know how to use make up well so that superman does not look exactly like Kent, that too when the pictures and videos of Superman are easily shown to be available to everyone in the movie.

3)You can waste away $225 million with no spectacular special effects even those which are given look like fake. The scene in which Superman stops a falling Boeing/Airbus, he just stops it at one point, and the aircraft turns by 90 degree angle but does not crash. They are simply ludicrous. A tiny man however powerful taking on planets does not give nice special effects. The spider man had nets which justified some Newtonian laws. This one will score highest on the error list.

4)What to talk of the story, did not understand it properly , how he is made of steel but still has blood, but you cannot prick him a needle. Radio active materials from Krypton hurt him but he moves around freely in the space and to his planet Krypton. How he gets well after a attack as hospitals cannot help him, sometimes he takes energy from the sun and sometimes he becomes so weak that a man can kick him.

This movie is full of absurdities and didn like any scene. To begin with went to Prasads,IMAX,Hyderabad to see the 3-D version of the movie. But the catch is it is partly 3-D and partly 2-D, the 3-D part is maybe only 1-5% of the total duration. And how do i know when to wear the 3-D glasses, they did a good job by flashing RED/GREEN lights at the required points, but that was not needed as the crowd used to burst into action mode whenever a 3-D scene came, everyone telling the other to wear the glass. No one wanted to miss the 3-D scenes for which we paid 180 Rs. and have to pay a 500 Rs. extra if the glasses are damaged.

This is one movie which has been promoted excessively by the producers and in all the languages.

CNN-IBN had to carry half hour long specials as the parent Time Warner has produced the movie. And all the special effects have been shown repeatedly on the trailers leaving nothing left for the actual movie.

Origin of Sardarji jokes

Indians by nature are a lazy breed. We want to get more by doing less. So we copy movie scripts, songs and what not. The Sardarji jokes are a direct take from the western Blond jokes or little Johny jokes. The jokes need to be something which we can identify with, that allows for replacing a “A Blond went to a doctor” with “A Sardarji went to a doctor”. But why only Sardarji jokes?

Why not name the jokes as “Tamilian Jokes”? If we look at Indian communities the most popular ones are Punjabi, Tamilian, Mallu, Bengali, Gujju, Haryanvi and Bihari. We don't hear about people from some states like Oriya and MP wallah(i don't even know what they are called). And there are Mallus jokes too, but they are not as popular as Sardarji jokes are. But Punjabi bhangra culture is there all over. All Bollywood movies have Punjabi characters and they are dominating the Hindi movies.

Santa and Banta have become essential characters in jokes. Not that Sardarjis are fools to start with. I have meet very intelligent Sardars. But they are cool people. They don't mind the jokes cracked on them. And if you have to identify someone's state/region identity Sardarji would be the easiest to start with. Therefore even the person with remotest idea of other Indians can connect with the plot of a Sardar going to a doctor. And there are old Indian jokes which tell about “Sardarji ke barah baaj gaye”. So whoever had the brilliant idea of converting all Blond jokes to Indian set ups chose the characters as Sardarjis.

But what would happen if we were to convert all the jokes to other characters. Say a Tamilian, people wont laugh then as a Tamilian is more often than not perceived as a dark rude man wearing lungi and refusing to co-operate with non-Tamilians(atleast in my part of the world). And don't even think of converting them to Bengali characters, may be the Left will withdraw support from the government and we wont be able to see any cricket matches in Eden Garden. And no not a Bihari character, these characters used to get all the roles of Ramu Kaka and other servants in old hindi movies. Bihari's are seen more as illiterate not as dumbs. Though there are some Laloo jokes doing rounds, which i don't find funny as Laloo is a clever politician.

PS- I have respect for all Indians(infact for all creatures on this earth).

Survival Strategies

I came across this column in a national daily and i am reproducing this.

This is the letter written by a reader to the 'Survival Strategies' column which provides solutions to reader's problems. If you don't want to read some offensive material you can stop here.

Q. I am a 25 year old married women. My husband works in Merchant Navy. He visited us last month to spend a week at home. I am usually alone at home and i had physical relationship with my father in law. I had physical relationship with the security guard too. Now i am pregnant but i don't know who the father is? What should i do? I am very much worried as what will happen if my husband finds it out.

• Name withheld on request

Our unusual take on the problem

A. You have no reason to worry. Relax, it happens with everyone. Who knows may be you are not your father's daughter after all. We all face such moments in life. But in future try to divert you interest to music, gardening or other hobbies rather than going into such illicit relationships.

Next thing you need to ensure is that the baby must come to this world. Don't think of abortion or any such thing. No need to punish the baby for no fault of his/hers.

Now coming to a detailed analysis of your problem. Three possible cases can arise as per the information provided by you.

A) Your husband is the father- This is the best situation which will solve all you problems.

B) If your father in law is the father of the baby. This is not that bad as expected the baby may look like your husband and no one will doubt you.

C) If the security guard is the father of the child. This is bothering me, what if the kid looks like the guard. One possible solution is to declare the security guard as a cousin brother of yours. That way he would be able to come to your house to see his baby. And neighbors will think the kid looks like his maternal uncle. But pray to God this situation never arises.

I will pray to God so that he gives you the strength to get out of this quagmire. By the way if your husband is still away, we can meet this weekend. Call me at 09848497834, i will try to give you some moments of happiness.

How I copied(Ctrl+C), pasted(Ctrl+V) and got screwed up

First two years of working life is not big on paper but would be the one where you learn the most. Other than shaping the career it leaves a strong impression on the professional attitude/behavior you display. I am about to complete it so here goes the flash back. My technical knowledge is of no interest to anyone so i will focus on the culture part.

But first have a look at the major points which are necessary to describe the company culture, which is infact a complex thing to do. So i have borrowed ideas from a professional to describe the culture of a company which is neither good nor bad but something which you cannot ignore, and here ends the plagiarism thing which started with the title.

Culture essentially is made of five different components:

1)Physical component-This shows how much the company is investing on the business. It includes infrastructure,computers,machinery and other things.

2)Systems-These are the systems which are used to run the business. It could be homegrown or according to universal standards.

3)Processes- Processes link the employees to the systems, it could be very specific to the company.

4)Employee to employee communication- This explains the co-ordination across departments.

5)Manager to Employee communication-This shows the freedom of expression enjoyed by a employee.

Scene 1:

A Indian brand known for its stock market performance and more for the ethics/values displayed by its founder member than the actual work it has done. And my first company after graduation.

This company is known for the large campuses it makes, it makes you feel “My company is growing”. The computers are sleek, the campus looks like a resort and it invests a lot in the business and making the brand. Other facilities like gym/sports are excellent(provided you get time for that).

As far as my project was concerned which required sitting in a restricted area and working on onsite machines(yes in US), made you feel you don't belong to either of the company, the outsourcing company gave zero facilities(kind of suspected Indians it seems) and the company paying the salary could not let us enjoy the internal facilities because of the restrictions imposed by client.

It was lose-lose situation as far as timing/work was concerned. At times the onsite machines were slow and tribal knowledge was a priced possession. The nature of the software package used made experience more valuable than it should be.

The employee to employee communication was nil it seems, after completion of my training in a city on the east coast of India i was transferred to a city near the west coast, after reaching there i was greeted with a one liner saying ”we were not expecting you please go back to some other place”. Yes advantage could be taken of that, like a friend of mine did by going to center other than the one where he was transferred. The departments here don't work in tandem if it is not like giving presentations one after the another in the induction program.

Manager to employee communication is also absent if you don't happen to be a beautiful gal and you manager a lustful man. But before leaving i managed to tell my manager everything i wanted to which made her feel angry, she was caring, but ..................................

And one more thing which i must mention about this company is the fact that it selects employees on the fact that they can speak English(so that they can tell the client the work has not been done as expected and bargain for some more time) and they should look sincere even if they are not.

As a result all the employees are criticizing the company, i like to criticize everything i see, so i found many people who could listen to me and give some more negative points about the company. If i continue to write all of them i will die before i end. So better end it here but with a note telling no one looked happy in this company even if they pretended to be happy. The frustration was there in all the eyes even for those who would fight with you if you criticize the company.

Scene 2:

A small R&D center of a core technical product, working on advance features of the product's newer versions. This company is a classic example of how merger ruins a company, that is merger of unequals. Well that is not the point here, the parent company of this product is in cost cutting spree and it has to take on the mightiest in the industry which forces it to outsource and cut costs wherever possible. As a result the physical infrastructure is average. The systems here better than what i had seen and so are the processes. But what baffled me most was i could find some happy employees. I had come to a conclusion that job satisfaction for software engineers is bullshit. Money was never a point and here it looked less than average, then how can someone be happy. May be the employees are not at all ambitious so they are happy with whatever they get, but this was true for my first company also, what is the difference here? Not everyone was happy but few were. Was this a local phenomena?

I am never happy even i try hard but would i be happy if i am paid for something i like to do. This is a valid reason. He is not happy for the money he is getting or the recognition he is getting but he is happy because this is what he wanted to do and he is getting to do that everyday 8 hours a day or may be more.

Coming to other points a small set up has its own advantage and disadvantage, everyone knows you but the choice of friends is less. I put this to an end but would like to mention this company takes average/below average guys who are interested in the technology they work on. Dedication is valued more then intelligence and the interesting thing is what makes these employees happy is the struggle they have to make while solving problems. May be a more intelligent person would have solved them in seconds but you enjoy challenges only if you can solve them with a bit of a struggle and they are not far beyond your reach.

And the usual stuff where “Appraisals are not there to rate performance but to drive performance” is true at everyplace. In my first company people were graded every year which led many to work/boot lick only to get the reflection in the grades.

Scene -1:

I need to go back in time and relive the 2 months experience i had as part of summer training in a family owned manufacturing industry. This company is a leader in India as far as production is concerned for that particular product. This particular plant was bought from a multinational company which spoke for the good physical infrastructure. There were not very specific processes or i could not understand them as i could not connect to the people there as they came from a background which is not the same as mine. There was a sluggish attitude which could be seen from the body language of the people. But it made me understand dynamics vary from industry to industry. There was no question of communication at any level, departments used to fight out every issue. Manager-employee relationship is beyond definition, it could be anything.

Well i stop this as there are two important questions:

1. How to stop Congress from implementing reservation?No i don't want to send forwarded mails?Is there a practical and effective way?Is hunger strike a way??

2. How to stop BJP from bullying film producers? What will happen to payment/future of unit members if films are not screened because of whims and fancies of political parties.

Are interviews a complete farce?

Every time i have been through a campus placement or walkin interview process, the feeling i had been led into was “interview results/process are arbitrary”. But they are not! What is wrong is the perception with which job interviews are seen. Atleast that is the case for software jobs.

Myth 1: Job selection process takes in the candidate having best knowledge/ability/other skills.

Fact: Companies never look for exceptionally talented employees. A good employee is one who likes his work, is sincere and a pleasure to work with. A employee will stick with the company not for money, but if he likes/enjoys the work he does. Job retention is very important for a software company so they will settle for a below average guy rather than a person who wants to go for MBA/MS.

Myth 2: The company with toughest technical round will give you the best technical/quality work you can get.

Fact: Technical interviews are there to know the level of your knowledge, but that is not important what is important here is “if you like a particular programming language you will have good knowledge of that language”. Only if you like C programming you will know the nuances of C language. Technical interviews are there to check your dedication to the work you do, which will be there only if you like the work.

Myth 3: If you have Comp Sc degree/B.Tech from IIT you hold a advantage over others.

Fact: This is completely false unless and until the company has a policy which binds it to take only Comp. Sc./IITians. The bottom line is if a company is allowing you to take the written test , it will take you regardless of your background. Some companies might require or recruit only grads from the big league colleges but that is more of pure HR policy than anything else.

Myth 4: You should a strong reason when you are going for a job shift

Fact: When you are leaving one company and going to another it is a disaster to the give the following reasons:

“I don't like my BOSS”

“I don't like the company culture”

“I don't like the salary”

“I don't like the city i am staying in”

“I don't like to work with non-IITians”

“I don't like to wear tie to office”

“I want to earn more money”

“I don't like to work in a manufacturing sector”

“I don't like to work in shifts”

“I need better work as i am intelligent”

“I don't want to work in support projects”

It is better not to give any reasons for changing job rather than giving the above reasons.

The only reason why a company will take you is if it feels “you have the energy but you cannot utilize all your skills and potential in your present job”.

This is true when you are making a shift from non-comp sc. background to software industry. Never ever curse your previous employer/your branch of study/your department or anyone for that matter.

All this was DON'T now coming to DO:

1) Resume- Your resume speaks a lot about you. If it just mentions your educational background, it gives a impression you just want to get a job. If it is gives information about your career interests/objectives it shows what you want to do. Everyone wants to have a employee who is clear with his goals/career and what he wants to do. If you are not clear with what you want to do with your life spend some time in introspection. Just add these two sections to your resume if you don't have.

Career Interest: To work in Enterprise Application development projects/ To work in development of editors/compilers.

Career Objective: To use my skills/work in challenging product development projects/To use my debugging skills to deliver world class products/To work in a challenging environment where my skills are used.

It could be anything but definitely something you want to do and something in which you have genuine interest. So that if they ask you questions you can easily prove your skills. NEVER LIE anywhere nor in resume nor interview. Try to include all the things you think would be important for a software company, that is quantitative/analytical skills.

2) Written Test- This is the easiest part as it is easy to get idea about written test from various sources.

3) Technical Interview- There is no shortcut to this stage. You will have to work on improving technical skills. If you like programming you will definitely do it and if you don't like programming no point in going to software industry. You should mention something you know very well in your resume to avoid rejection in technical rounds. You must know about the project you are working on.

4) HR Interview -Getting rejected at this stage means something is wrong with your attitude/behavior or something else which you need to work on. You should tell what you want to do with your career in next 5 years. And how that matches with the company you are applying to.

DISCLAIMER:

Girls don't need to do all this they can get any job anywhere.

I might have missed some points which are pretty obvious.

You can turn to me for any specific questions.

Embarrassed?

I had my share of embarrassing moments but they are not the ones i want to remember and absolutely nothing comes to my mind when i am asked to tell one, but one which i remember is about a Bihari friend of mine. Why being Bihari is important here is because Bihari boys are very uncomfortable when they have to talk to girls. My friend had cultivated a habit of watching all sort of movies in his computer, so he befriended one person who used to supply pirated CDs. He used to go to his home to take all the new movie CDs being released. During one such visit of his i accompanied him. We went to the guy's home. My friend called out “Guddu!Guddu!!”.One woman came out, supposedly his wife.

My friend asked if Guddu is there? She replied “No! But what do you want 2X or 3X?”. By the time i could have looked for the expression on my friend's face, he had completely vanished from the scene.

I had no option but to come back. I found he had covered many quick steps out of the shock, he was almost running. I asked him what happened, and his face was as if police had caught him red handed committing a serious crime. We came back hurriedly. And this same friend of mine never hesitates to tell “Bangali log bahut darpok hote hain!” and i am always reminded of that day.

Why Blog?

I started blogging to have a proper web identity. Earlier if i googled for “Sujoy Neogi”, the results led to some MD/MS student list who qualified in a exam. Now it leads to my blogger profile. Having a uncommon name helps for sure as i think there are only two “Sujoy Neogi” in this world. With a very common name its almost impossible to have your blog ranked first in google 'Page Rank'. And if you share your name with a celebrity you can never get your results on the first page. When i started blogging my blog didn appear in the search result immediately,i guess google updates its web indexes every week and may be every day for news/popular sites, once i found a rediff.com article with major goof ups cached in google news even after it was removed from the site. Coming back to blogs, the way to move your blog up on the search result list is by having more people linking your site on their blogs.

It may be not be that common in India to search about person using google search as not many of us have our profile online. But now the trend has started as many universities offer space on their official sites to the grads for having their resumes and other info online. And this will continue as more and more people joining software companies.

One advantage of writing a blog which is same as that of writing a diary is it lets you know how and what you thought when you read it after say 5-10 years. So start writing a blog if you haven't started it yet. The benefits of writing 2 paragraphs everyday is worth it.

A happening day!!!

Radio Mirchi launched in Hyderabad!!!

Finally the wait is over, 95 FM Radio Mirchi is here

- but the content is TOTAL TELEGU boo! boo! boo!

- AIR FM Rainbow is better with alternate hours dedicated to Hindi Film Music

- And what i feel bad is not being allotted any shares for ENIL(Radio Mirchi) even though my bid was at the cut off price! It has a good future, Times Outdoor media has filled Hyderabad with Ads related to everything. Every day i return from office i am forced to look at the big billboards supposedly owned by Times outdoor media, i doubt so as Hyderabad Times keeps on mentioning about Tanla & other recruitment Ads near the Lifestyle Flyover.

The big news on CNN IBN was Manmohan Singh hinting for reservation in private sector, followed by long debates on the issue.

Does reservation really help? If adversity brings the best out of a man 'reservation' brings out the worst of a man. Protecting or giving some one relaxation does not help anyone grow. May be because of reservations the so called weaker sections didn't grow. I know few SC/STs, they are rich and they don't work hard, as they know they will easily get jobs in government sector. And the poor people who need scholarships don't know anything about institutes/profession/companies forget about their rights for reservation.

Most poor children do not complete school, so no point in giving reservation in IIT/IIM or even private companies.

Well the debate will continue........

Waiting for 2020

India 2020: A nation with a population of 1.265 billion people and more than 30 million software engineers. This will happen but i want more, companies like Microsoft or Google coming out of Hyderabad or Banglore? May be a IBM to show the scale of revenue. And why not more brands which stand for India and not for outsourcing,................

I always thought the right time to join as a software engineer was 1995-98, as all those who joined software industry at that time have grown more because of demand than their talent. It is very unusual to become project managers with 3 or 4 years of experience, but in Indian scenario where software companies have recruited heavily in the last 2 years all those who joined in 95/98 have been made project managers. That does not mean all who have joined in the last 2 to 3 years will become project managers in next 5-6 years. But what will happen to these software engineers if they don't see any growth in their roles, will they turn to entrepreneurship? I hope so as that is what Indian software industry needs today. Now when Indian companies are going the IT way, they should do so with Indian software products and Indian service providers to implement it. But Bharti's outsourcing deals going to IBM and Nortel speak the other way.

Coming back to the role of managers, in service provider companies where it is very difficult to predict the estimated time to complete the project because of the nature of work, which does not involve fixed things, needs more experience on the part of managers to allocate resources properly. A product based company has fixed dates for release which are decided long ago and work of that kind has been done for prior releases to make the estimation easier. But the services company which handle many maintenance projects find it difficult to allocate proper number of resources to the project and the result is some people working more than 14 hours a day to reach the deadline and the rest of junta on bench wonders why the work is not being given to them. Though a mandatory number of bench employees requirement under SEI CMM kind of dilutes the issue it cannot justify the poor management skills of mangers at higher level who look into execution of projects in companies like Infy or TCS . The kind of deal between outsourcing companies and the Indian companies which bill per person per hour or are fixed cost make it more difficult to change the deal at a later stage. The result is dissatisfaction for everyone.

The number of Indian product development companies is too less and the India development centers of US product companies never go for handling independent releases. So how are we going to have the vision 2020 which requires more of experience and skills which come over time.

Being Cyrus

Its very natural to have some expectations from the movie you are going to watch. I try to control my expectations to avoid disappointment as many a times i feel cheated when what is promised in the trailer is not there in the movie. But this time it was not the case, Being Cyrus gives you more than is promised in the promos. Yeah its a refreshing movie, it has a story, the story is handled perfectly by the director and the performances are brilliant. Some of the dialogs are still in my mind, when Saif Ali Khan says something like, 'people make eye contacts but she makes breast contact whenever its possible'. Or the fight between Boman Irani and the neighborhood woman.

Dimple Kapadia, Naseerudin Shah, Simone Singh all look as real characters. The essence of the movie is the story which makes you ask many questions and gives enough clues and all of them are answered beautifully in the end. The movie has lots of dialogs with Parsi words and one where the old father says 'All of us used to f*** the officer's wife one by one but she had a liking for me'. The movie was made in English so it does not look that crude, may be in Hindi it would look nasty.

Whether it 15 Park Avenue or Mixed Doubles or Being Cyrus all are song free, have a duration of 2 hours, deal with a interesting theme and you dont have to make an effort to sit through them. May be with the addition of more multiplexes more such movies will come to the viewers. And more advertisements will come your way, this time PVR Hyderabad has started sending boys who come during the movie to take your orders and actually interrupt to ask if you want to order something. The big hotdogs which are shown during the break as 'special for the day' at PVR candy bar are tempting enough and there is absolutely no need to sell them during the movie.

Munnabhai MBBS

Are Hindi movies unrealistic? Some situations in the movies are difficult to accept but there is no limit to what can happen in real life. Everyday in workplace and TV i see fake people getting applause from others even though everyone knows the person is question is a fraud one. In Delhi Public School, Ranchi which is quite a reputed school in Ranchi there were teachers who taught nothing and knew nothing but still everyone loved them. Students loved him as he was not serious and gave many liberties in class. And his peers had to respect him as he was close to the principal. A friend of mine even went and complained to the principal but nothing was done. Then i got the chance to see some amazing professors at University of Roorkee(now IITR),some worse than school teachers, after lots of discussion with my friends i agreed that in India only those who don't get jobs pursue higher studies and PhD and this explains the poor quality of academicians. But this is not true for small schools only where a teacher pronounces 'canal' as 'channel' or private colleges where simple engineering graduates are teaching. This is true probably for all the professions and everywhere. In Hyderabad recently a fake doctor who got job in a Hospital showing false experience as doctor was caught. In villages illiterates can be fooled and they even agree for surgery at the hands of Pakhandi Babas. On national television(NDTV) Suhel Seth gives powerful remarks and sometimes i am also lured into believing that he will kill Jessica Lal's murders someday or the other. And can the indian multinationals be far behind, in my first job in a respected software company(partly because of its stock market performance) the person who was awarded the most valuable players of the team was the one i never saw working. He was only poking nose into other's job which was presented as if he was helping others because of which he could not do his own work and had to stay late in the night everyday. After that i had the privilege to see a person whose ability to play with words is impeccable. Without knowing anything he speaks confidently about everything and manages to get away with all his lies. Sometimes i think SAI BABA has given some special blessings to him, may be he was Sai Baba in his last life. The fact is some people get more in life than they deserve and the only reason i see behind this is Pichle Janam Ke Punya.

Hyderabad

Hyderabad once the city of Nizams is now the city of software companies/BPOs and shopping malls. The Cost of flats like the one shown in the third photograph is 40 lakhs for a 2 BHK. And not to the speak of the traffic, while the roadside trees are being cut to make the roads broader no effort has been put to create a lane system for the vehicles.

Stansfield plans 20 business schools

The Singapore-based Stansfield School of Business is contemplating a major foray with an investment of Rs 170 crore. The Stansfield Group is planning 20 business schools in the country during the next three years. The business schools will come up in Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Thiruvananthapuram and Bhopal.

Good News!!!

After the mushrooming of private engineering colleges in Southern states and now all over India, its the turn for the B-Schools now. Clearly with so many engineers working all around managers are needed to manage them. And as most of the elite B-school passed outs cant be hired by the Indian Companies, they will take recruits from these very colleges. Indian Economy is booming so placement wont be a problem and Stansfield would definitely create a brand, if not as powerful as ISB then atleast better than the second grade B-Schools. We all look at International brands with respect and Chennai Business School has already started advertising for the coming session with a one MBA year course much like ISB.

In engineering the private colleges have not been able to create any powerful brand, Amity is still looked with suspicion and the entrance tests to most of private colleges are conducted by state boards which leads to doubt about the quality of the passed out grads. But in B-Schools for admission everyone asks for the CAT/GMAT score which leads to standardization. This year Chennai School of Business has asked for CAT/XAT/GMAT score, it will select a few, probably those who have a higher percentile or GMAT score and it will get a ranking based on the minimum score it takes. Next year all those applying to say MICA/TAPMI will also apply to CSB as last year people with percentile score of say 94 were selected at CSB.

What will happen is yet to be seen but India needs more of world class B-Schools and we hope to see some them coming in the next 3 years.

Made in India

Bill Gates was asked on a talk show on NDTV24*7 during his visit to India, if he sees big software products coming from Indian companies his reply was for next 3-6 years No!,but next 10 to 15 years – YES!!! Given the fact that in 2002 India had meager 0.2% of the US$ 180 billion global software product market share and MADE IN INDIA brand has low acceptability and reach when it comes to software products we have a way to go.

There are software products coming out from Indian Companies trying hard to get the market share, take for instance Pramati Technologies(winner of NASSCOM Distinguished Technology Product Company Award) which had to form partnership with E-biz consultants like Yasu Technologies to get its WEB SERVER sold to customers. With biggies like IBM and BEA in the web server market it is targeting only 4-5 percent of the web application server market in US.

Cranes Software winner of Distinguished Application Product Company Award at NASSCOM Product Summit 2005, played a beautiful innings by buying up products for Systat Inc.(its US subsidiary) in three stages where each acquisition, from the US-based SPSS Science, was bigger than the size of Cranes at that time. The story how it did it is as interesting as the growth of the company which had revenues of around Rs. 1,633.8 million in FY 2005 of which 80% came from selling propriety products.

Ramco's fight with SAP and Oracle to take on global ERP market took around 10 years for it to get into profit mode, its first product was incidentally launched by Bill Gates as it was first ERP system to run on a Windows Server while SAP the ERP market leader had its own platform. The Adaptive Enterprise Solutions built on Ramco VirtualWorks has helped Ramco achieve a turnover of over USD 50 Million.

And not to forget Yasu which ranked 178th in The Deloitte Technology Fast 500 Asia Pacific 2004 and is recognized as one of the top 50 technology companies in the Deloitte Technology Fast50 India 2005 program.

Product development is on the higher side of innovation and has higher risk proportion than usual service based projects carried out by bulk of Indian companies, but more than that the lack of understanding of what a big “Made In India” brand can do to India is what is stopping other Indian companies to enter global product market.

Do you feel you are superior than others?

There could be many reasons for one to feel superior over others.
And it is more so in India with many diverse cultures existing together.

A Hindu feels he is better than a Muslim because of religion. A Tamilian thinks he is above a fellow non-Tamilian. A South Indian feels he is always more progressive than a North Indian. A IITian feels none of the private college engineers can be in anyway better than him. A IIM graduate may be getting 4 times the normal pay for the same work because not only he but his employer also believes he is great compared to other MBAs. A girl is mostly thought of as a poor student when it comes to Maths and Physics. A Indian is not considered as sincere as a Japanese. All this just means even before i meet a person the person has already formed a opinion about me based on my Sex, my Mother Tongue, my home town, my Nationality, my Caste(taking a idea from my surname), my Religion, my Education and the College i passed from. That explains why people add the name of their institute to their mail ids or why blog writers mention where they passed from. Brand carries a lot of weight when people interact with you but here the brand is not made by you, it has been added to you right after your birth and could depend on your career choices also, like if you are working in a well known company it adds to the image you have.

But do we miss out on quite a few beautiful relationships or experiences just because of this prejudiced way of meeting people. The idea of seeing every person as a new person gives you the chance of getting new friends and well wishers every where you go. But its a hard thing to do we have been fed with constant doses of wisdom which tell how to know a person just by his religion or state. And it takes new forms once our ego comes to play.

Valentine's Day

A boring day for new channels with no major story, Valentine's day dominated the English news channels today, truly it brings good luck to everyone. Shiv Sena gets the much needed publicity as the only day of year it is active is Feb 14^th and News channels and Serial Makers get a extra event to add in their usual bulletins and soap operas. Earlier Holi and Diwali were the only celebrations in a TV soap family but now all of them go to Valentine's day parties to find their valentine. And while all those lucky people who have found their love are enjoying at parties, singles are busy voting for SMS polls on NDTV judging if Valentine's day is relevant or ridiculous.

Indian Idol saw the exit of Panna Gill, one of the top performers, true in a democracy like India the contestant liked by majority is always the imperfect one. Audience hates perfection, those who present themselves as perfect seldom get the votes. The idea is to present oneself as a normal person right from your neighborhood or be prepared to voted out. Cry ,shout or yell but prove that you have limitations and janta will come to your rescue with votes.

Why Job Hopping is so common in India?

In India its very common for someone working in a software industry to have changed three companies in three years. The number of jobs available in market is one thing which facilitates it. But still why are Indians not loyal to their companies? Are companies recruiting wrong persons in wrong jobs? No one would agree to that as most of the big companies have elaborate rounds of interviews which screen the candidate at various stages . Still most companies have not been able to come out of this problem and when talking of engineering college grads from so called Top Colleges in India most of them leave their first job within a year of joining.

The problem lies somewhere when a future engineer starts thinking about his engineering career or even before that. As soon as a student leaves 10^th class and enters +2 his journey into a future which wont be guided by his interest begins. He starts preparing for engineering entrance exams without being sure he wants to be a engineer at first place, next comes his engineering branch which is decided by his rank and not by his interest and then it continues with a job he gets where he is not sure what work he would be doing. And though there are strict selection process for selecting engineers the pressure from parents/friends/ego/competition makes many work hard and get into engineering even if they don't like studying it. And so is the case with companies recruiting engineers even if they put all kind of tests to screen out the employees who wont prove to be good. Now from the point of view of a company a good employee is one who would work in the company for a longer period and has the minimum necessary skills required for working there, which most of the times is a non-issue as the work done in most Indian companies can be done by anyone provided he can effectively communicate with everyone in the team. Then why do companies test the engineers for technical skills so vigorously? The reason is studies tell that a person will stay in a job if he is working on something related to his interest field. So companies ask a lot of technical questions to know if the person is really interested in Software or not. Clearly put if you want to be in software industry you should be interested in software and if you are interested in software you should be having a good amount of knowledge of software. That means the testing of technical skills is only to know if the person is really interested in choosing software as a career. But this method does not work so well in India as it would have done outside India as here we can do anything to get money and studying some topics to get a job is not something big for us. Yes some companies have found some innovative solutions to this problem. Like you would be seeing many companies that tell we take people from IITs only, this does not mean the work being done there is very good, but it serves two purposes very nicely. One is IITians hate to work with non-IITians and they feel great when they are working with IITians. They feel they are at a great place and to prove themselves to other IITians they work very hard. HR people understanding this thing either go only for IITians no matter how the job aligns with the person's interest or if the job really needs people with good aptitude. The second way HR managers have found is to recruit people who can do the job but are not all ambitious or come from college where even getting a job is big thing. So they remain faithful to the company and work hard as they got a job they would have never thought of having at first place.

Those who go into IIT or other top colleges after lots of hard work and dreams of achieving big success in life develop a sense of superiority complex which makes them feel they are level above the other normal people who could not perform so well during pre-engineering days. And this makes them believe they should be paid more. And for a engineer whose first wrong choice was either this career or his branch of study makes his next mistake by going for a job where he would be working with IITians but something which wont give him any satisfaction of having accomplished great things. This can lead to more job hopping or dissatisfaction.

It is very much true that you cannot change the jobs available in economy but the courses of study like engineering should also be oriented according to needs of the industry. And may be with opening up of career opportunities in other areas and with them getting respect things will change in future where a person would not be forced to do things he doesn't want to do in life.

Thumbs down to Times Now

Times NOW turned out to be dumber than expected, they too like other channels carried one exclusive story followed by the so called impact it had on everyone. This new phenomena called IMPACT(the old one being Breaking News and JustIn) was started by NDTV and was taken miles ahead by CNN-IBN with new operations almost everyday. Today it was Operation WaterRat on CNN-IBN which exposed how easily Indian Coasts can become the source point for RDX and other explosives but at the same time NDTV 24X7 had a good debate on India and Pakistan, though the topic is old the content was good. TIMES NOW has a slow kind of feel, its not as aggressive as CNN-IBN. One very important differentiator now a days is the priority given to stories and NDTV 24X7 is the winner here as it puts the stories in the rank they deserve. Every English News Channel has a sports bulletin at 19:30 hours and Face the Nation kinda discussion at 22:00 hours and all these were started by NDTV and no one wants to break this trend it seems. TIMES NOW gives more weightage to the story it thinks is exclusive, like today it was on the Expose on letters sent by PMO to other ministers which somehow shows that no minister is listening to what Manmohan is saying even though the hot topic today was Airport Privatizations and was well covered everywhere.
TIMES NOW lacks what ZOOM had, there THE TIMES OF INDIA focused on its strength which is Masala but here it is trying to create a image of channel which is good at journalism which definitely TIMES group is not. Has Times forgotten the basics it learnt in Newspapers, YOU NEED NOT BE THE BEST TO BE THE MOST SUCCESSFUL,BUT YOU NEED TO FEED THE VIEWERS WHAT IT WANTS AND IN INDIA IT IS MASALA.

Reality of reality shows - part 2

What is really fascinating about reality shows is the sense of power it gives to the viewers. Whether its KBC or Indian Idol it is the power of feeling superior which drives the viewers. How many of us feel elated when we see contestant in KBC not able to answer a question which we can easily answer? We feel the same when the contestant we predicted wins in Indian Idol voting. And the list goes on, i think to a certain extent Indian Cricket also is more like a reality show. We know the players personally and we take interest in their personal lives also, we like discussing about them and it makes us feel we are patriotic and know so much about who will play how. Its not the sheer pleasure of watching a game but the pleasure of predicting and commenting which satisfies us. Tell me how many of the viewers understand the nuances of the game, certainly not more than 50% of the total viewers but we all know the name of the players,which city the person belongs and it is not unusual to hear comments on one's region and other characteristics which don't have any relation with the game. Cricket in India is another show like Indian Idol but just has vast reach, may be because of the simpleness of the game. And without any voting power we gladly take the role of selection committee when it comes to cricket.

And this is what brings TRPs to any show, the more we get to discuss and more the predictions and comments more is the number of eye balls a show gets. So it seems a viable strategy by reality show producers like Indian Idol and Fame Gurukul to bring contestants with which the viewers can identify. Remember Qazi Taqueer(Fame Gurukul), he won just because of his never say die attitude and because he could express it(his attitude) quite comfortably. This explains why shows like Deal or No Deal don't seem to take off, just because the format is not interactive. Gone are the days when people would watch a soap opera with a predicable story pattern, as it does not bring any excitement. Formats like Idol and Gurukul give people something to talk about and bring more than committed viewership, yes Indian Idol was a kind of addiction which made Abhijeet Sawant, the singer with largest selling Indian album.

I know a person who likes Qazi so much that he bought the Fame Jodi album even without hearing the songs. So is there anything wrong with these reality shows? No nothing wrong with this, if The Times of India becomes largest selling newspaper selling gossips and articles with no head or tails but on topics which are of immense interest to people. And if Aaj Tak,Star News and India TV capitalize on the sensational news using sex scandals, scams and hidden cameras pouncing on soft targets like Film Stars, then may be SONY should definitely bring in the desi version of Big Brother.

Reality of reality shows - part 1

Talent hunt shows and reality shows are ruling the TV channels now. Sony's highest TRP gainer is Indian Idol and so is Zee's Saregama Challenge 2005 and Star One's Great Indian Laughter Challenge. As Industry estimates tell Sony invested around 50 crores for promoting Indian Idol and Fame Gurukul when it launched them but the total investment for Indian Idol 2 is only 20 to 22 crores. Does that mean the cost of promotion is more than producing the show, one reason could be Sony goes overboard in promoting the shows and may be its needed also as families which are glued to Star Plus would find it difficult to tune to Sony. As mostly mothers watch the Ekta Kapoor soaps on Star Plus and in a joint family system no one dares to change the channel and it is true for other small families also as the wife gets to decide the channel if there is no cricket on show. But still Star One has managed to create a new space for itself without any major marketing strategy other than promos on the No.1 channel, Star Plus. Though Star One had tough time buying frequency on the prime band by greasing cable owners as no one really thought there is space for yet another mass entertainment channel in Hindi. May be comedy(Great Indian Laughter Challenge) and new ideas(Nach Baliye) worked in its favor. But still its Great Indian Comedy Show(poor & stale content) does not have as much popularity and nor does shows like Bluff Master which are unique and have great content also. The bottom line is good shows gain popularity even without huge publicity and marketing tricks. Much of Great Indian Laughter Challenge's popularity can be attributed to word of mouth publicity through MMS forwards or email forwards containing clips of Sunil Pal's and Raju Srivastava's performances. And sometimes even the best coverage and publicity does not work as was the case with Channel V's Superhit Singer which was simulcasted on all the Star Channels but it never clicked and it could never create stir which Sony managed to create with Indian Idol.

Welcome to Yahoo Chat!

Chatting has become a special part of my life, all my old friends i was scared of missing are close to me because of Yahoo Messenger. Yahoo brought the concept in a popular way through the Yahoo Messenger long ago(in last century) which remains unchallenged even today, yes Google has added a very powerful voice chat feature but the Smileys of Yahoo, the Buzz (Ctrl+G), the changeable font size and the invisible status message are too nice to forget and move on to Gtalk.

Chatting has left an indelible impression on my mind, even when i can talk directly i prefer to chat, partly because i can write anything i want, but in office or other public places i cant say everything

loudly. And this led to newer ways of chatting other than the Yahoo, Gtalk or IP Messenger. Yes when i want to see the expressions of the person i am chatting with i go to his seat, open a notepad then i type one line and he types the other, then we laugh, smile or smirk looking at each other. This all started when in my previous company me and my friend always had something to tell about our colleagues and project manager, so as soon as i sensed something funny or fishy, i jumped to his seat and typed the same. And this continues till date and this gives me immense relief as i am able to express myself without any censorship.

And i have seen as we grow up we are told to control our emotions, this leads to accumulation of feelings which needs a vent to escape. Its makes sense to say less when you are saying something which can hurt others but more often than not it hurts you the more. And it is quite possible people who talk in a calculated manner are more successful in professional life, but i personally find it very difficult making a rapport with someone who talks diplomatically. All this comes from the family you belong to, if your parents are white collar professionals chances are more that you know when to talk what and how to be politically correct, but for those coming from family backgrounds with blue collar jobs, it is difficult to accept that many a times truth is unacceptable in corporate world.

Mandira Bedi aur Sony

It seems Mandira Bedi brings good luck to Sony, starting with the EXTRA INNINGS which brought a shift in Sports/Cricket commentary towards Glamor, to Fame Gurukul and now in Deal or No Deal. All have been trend setters, every channel puts a lady in the commentary box in every sports now a days be it football or WWF. And now Madhavan is being replaced by Mandira Bedi to bring more eyeballs to Deal or No Deal. Sony has been trying very hard to the right node and who knows may be it has been successful but the current system of TRP ratings shows it in poor light. I have been a die hard fan of SONY's marketing strategies. No one comes near to Sony when it comes to promoting the channel. And it has always been the front runner when it comes to implementing new ideas. Even today Indian Idol or Deal or No deal has the best IN PROGRAM ad placement, barring the Nokia ad all other placements are quite well fitted into the script and effective also. Look for instance at the idea to have every leaving participant leave a message on the Asian Paint wall or Chloro-Mint representing Re.1 in Deal or No Deal. As Sony is busy promoting itself during the AD breaks it makes perfect sense to find new innovative ways to sell the in program ad spots. Look the way Fame Gurukul was promoted across channels using tie ups with MTV and AAJTAK, Star and Zee have all the channels in their bouquet but they have not been able to create the BUZZ Sony has done with its perfect execution of 360 degree marketing tactics. It has tried to sell the channel as a whole and has reacted very swiftly to he viewers choice by scrapping poor shows, but it has been quite unlucky as the Media Planners go by the TAM ratings which are very much tilted towards Star. Sony lacks a distribution channel, it does not have the Rahejas or Siticable with it so it becomes difficult for it convince the buyers of having a stable and secured viewership. But hope this year will prove to be a milestone year for Sony as it is launching all the hit international formats in a Indian Avatar may be starting with Cadbury's Bournvita Confidence Challenge. Viewers are looking for a change and it has been proved with Star One's success. The old weepy shows on Star Plus must die soon. And one more urgent need is that of a more metro like English Channel which shows Indian shows, otherwise all these viewers have to tune to lifestyle cum News channels like NDTV Profit. Zee Cafe has created a sort of sluggish image for itself otherwise it would have hit the jackpot, but no wants to switch to Zee Cafe for entertainment. We can surely and safely have the Indianised versions of Desperate Housewives and Sex and the City.

Chameli ki Shaadi

This January many people i know will get heart aches as she ties knot with her boyfriend. I am not talking about a TV or Film Star but she is someone who has broken several hearts. I know her since my +2 days and wherever she has been, guys have been there to fall in love with her. May be its not love but when you see everyone competing for the same girl you tend to believe she is precious. When i saw her for the first time i knew this is the girl i always wanted to marry, her short hair, her dressing sense, the colors she wore(blue and red), everything made me feel i want her, but the problem is everyone feels so. And there is the catch she can chose whoever she wants from may be over 200 shortlisted guys. I am not sure what my position is in the waiting list to marry her, but after having a crush on her for 8 odd years or so i still wonder if she was a right choice for me. After all marriages are made in heaven so if i was to marry her, we would have met in some way or other. But we never talked apart from the usual Hi or Bye. Does that mean she is not suitable for me, atleast that is what i would conclude as God has been very generous in giving me good people around me.

When you choose your soul mate there are many things you should look at, your hobbies should match,otherwise there would be very few things for you two to share. And all of us have something in our life which could be our purpose of living or our aim in life, your partner should be able to appreciate that, if that is not the case i am afraid your marriage will turn out to be a mere agreement and mostly this is what happens in India as everyone but the couple should feel good about the marriage. In order to keep parents and relatives happy the basic reason behind getting married diluted. And the need for a partner is different for different people. Some want a caring partner, some want a dependable partner and some look for someone they can care for. If the roles are complimentary its fine but if both are say dominating it leads to fights and quarrels. It takes time to realize what we want from our partner, may be after you settle in job the need arises, as during college days we look for a partner to hang out or just to make everyone jealous. This explains why many of the love marriages are not successful and many a times by luck you get a wife through arranged marriage who suits you perfectly. There is a nice way to know if the girl or boy you are dating right now is good for you. Just think have you been able to tell him/her everything about you? If the answer is yes its great as if the hearts are not connected and if you are not exactly comfortable with her the chances are you cannot express yourself properly. It does not matter if you are a introvert or extrovert because if only two people are talking you should be able to pour out your heart to her. So keep your search on and may be i will soon have a crush which materializes into love and then to a marriage.

News you can Enjoy

Times Group has finally joined the battle for supremacy in the English TV News channel market with TIMES NOW, the second offering from by Times Group after Zoom established itself as a lifestyle and gossip channel. The channel has already lured the cable operators and booked a prime frequency slot for itself and promos featuring well known personalities from Movies,Sports,Politics are there on the air much before the official launch of the channel on 26^th

of January. The channel like its other sister brands( indiatimes.com & Zoom) will piggyback on The Times of India, so be prepared to see reports in Times asking you to tune to the channel. I think it will be more like English version of Aaj Tak/Star News and it may succeed also. The reason is we watch News much like we watch dramas and reality shows. One example is Star Ananda the Bangla news channel which rose to No.1 position within few weeks of its launch,like Star News it also served news as a drama. Go to any house,you will see people enjoying news which criticizes politicians or Ganguly for that matter. We don't want to see the serious issues but we like to see anything which makes us feel that we are not the only wrong doers but everyone in this country is.

This is what Times of India does, it gives everyone the power to criticize the government or cricket players. And till now channels like NDTV 24*7 or the new one CNN-IBN haven't been able to create a image like that. They are more upmarket and NDTV Profit is more like celebrity lifestyle channel with shows on bikes, golf and gadgets. CNBC TV18 is a great news channel and it gives loads of information. Headlines Today is not sharp as it claims but has good coverage on sports. But still the battle could turn out to be difficult as CNN-IBN also looks ready to tap the same audience with India TV styled stings. What i expect from these news channels is more international news as both(CNN-IBN & TIMES NOW(Reuters) have international partners and there is no focus on international news by news channels these days.

It may take some time to take the share away from NDTV but if NDTV is hearing please reduce the ad break duration for your news programs otherwise the long breaks will force the viewers to tune to other No.1 wannabes.

Dare to think beyond the IIMs

Rashmi Bansal's blog points to the actual situation of placements in IIMs. It is true that as always grass look greener on the other side and B-School salary packages are there to debate upon, but is it the responsibility of the B-Schools to provide Big Salary packages during placements, many international B-Schools don't give campus placements and it seems that IIMs don't want to give admission to grads whose real aim is to get a big salary package, all my friends who are in IIMs had to give to some other funda of life to make the interviewers understand why they want to do a MBA, the point is IIMs never acknowledge directly that campus placements is what they offer,which may not be the truth as the press releases by IIMs talk a lot about the campus placements to establish their superiority over others. But still the bottom line it is not fair to expect from the IIMs to provide exact salary details of companies and ensure they are correct. Because the people who go to IIMs are learning so much about how businesses run, about finance, about HR and they have access to all kind of media(both MSM & non-MSM) and valuable suggestions from seniors. They are expected to do impossible things so finding true details about salary of a company is like a child's play for them.

But there are people who need to be informed!!!

There are thousands of people in coaching institutions preparing for IITs and IIMs. You can easily guess the situation by remembering the uproar when IITs restricted JEE to 2 attempts only. There are many in states like Bihar who prepare for JEE for years on stretch, i have even met people who have dropped 5 years after 12^th to go to IIT. And there are many engineering and other graduates who leave their jobs to prepare for IIMs. For these people the career itself is spoiled if they dont get into IIT even after years of work and thousands of rupees. A typical school student has access to main stream media only and they are forced by parents to prepare for IIT. A friend of mine who was very good in Maths was getting top engineering branches in colleges other than IITs, but as IIT K was the top college(according to India Today) he joined a dual degree M.Sc. course in IIT K. What i mean to say he can never achieve what he could have had he joined Comp. Sc. or a branch which suited his aptitude and moreover now he is in software industry where his 5 year specialized branch knowledge has no use. This is story of many who joined IITs in search of education and now are left only with a superiority complex that they are the best as once they topped the JEE. Not to talk of the students who could not join IIT and are paying for the years wasted in preparation.

What is needed?

One good step taken by IIT council is that of limiting the number of attempts to 2. It should be limited to 1 attempt for those don't have any genuine medical or other reason for a drop. The next step should be that of scrapping off the obsolete branches and introduce branches for undergraduate courses which are relevant to the Indian economy. It wont be wrong if i say that private colleges contribute more to the economy of India by producing computer science engineers in big numbers, which is in fact today's need. And next step is to create awareness that IIT is not the only thing and the IITians and IIM grads about whom we get to hear so much are the ones who would have done so even without the tag they are carrying,for they are talented and motivated people.